SOMETHING IN THE AIR

Tweeters stand with Rand, mock McCain

#ImAWackoBirdBecause hashtag used for instant response to senator's slam

Thanks to the instant-reaction capabilities of microblogging site Twitter, Americans who support Sen. Rand Paul and his historic filibuster Wednesday are lashing back at Sen. John McCain, who labeled the Kentucky Republican and two other legislators “wacko birds” for calling President Obama to account on his administration’s drone policies.

“They were elected, nobody believes that there was a corrupt election, anything else,” McCain told Huffington Post. “But I also think that when, you know, it’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”

Asked to clarify, McCain said he was referencing “Rand Paul, Cruz, Amash, whoever.”

Twitter users today wasted no time making hay of McCain’s name-calling, using the hashtag #ImAWackoBirdBecause before tweeting a reason he or she stands with Rand – as well as with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., two other liberty-minded lawmakers.

In initial response to the Kentuckian’s successful filibuster, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who supped with the president Wednesday while their colleague held forth on the Senate floor, blasted Paul for what they considered a political stunt.

Quoting from a Wall Street Journal editorial, McCain told his fellow senators Thursday: “The country needs more senators who care about liberty, but if Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in their college dorms. He needs to know what he’s talking about.”

Paul filibustered for nearly 13 hours to draw attention to the Obama administration’s initial refusal to state that it did not have constitutional authority to execute a drone attack on an American on American soil and in protest of the president’s nomination of John Brennan as director of the CIA.

His move was declared a victory when Attorney General Eric Holder issued a terse response, clarifying that the president has no such drone-kill authority.